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If you’re like me, you awoke this morning with a little more pep in your step than usual — not because Prime Day is here and it means lots of non-Amazon deals, too — but rather because there is a new Amex Offer out for Illy coffee that pairs beautifully with shopping portal cash back, a 20% off sitewide sale, and the $30 monthly Amex Platinum PayPal credit (June 2021 is the final month for this credit).
The Deal
- There is a new Amex Offer out today for $10 back on $50+ at illy coffee. This stacks nicely with a site-wide 20% off deal, 8% back from a shopping portal, the $30 PayPal credit on some credit cards, and possibly even a referral for a new PayPal account if the stars align for you. More detail below.
Key Terms
- Amex Offer expires 8/20/21
- illy coffee 20% off sitewide with coupon code SUMMER ends Wednesday, 6/23
Quick Thoughts
I don’t claim to be a coffee connoisseur – I’m merely an addict, so take my opinion with a lump of sugar and a splash of cream – but I really like illy coffee. I just really don’t like the price of illy coffee.
Enter today’s deal: knowing my addiction to illy coffee, Stephen Pepper sent me a message in the wee hours of the morning alerting me to the fact that there is a new Amex Offer out today that is good for $10 back on $50 or more at illy.
It was as if he knew that I was about to pull the trigger on an illy coffee order on Friday, but held off hoping for some sort of deal for Prime Day. Good things come to those who wait!
Here’s how to stack for the best deal:
- Start at a shopping portal. TopCashBack is offering 8% back, which is pretty objectively the best rate I see.
- Click through to illy.com.
- Add enough stuff to still have $50+ in your cart after the 20% off code (i.e. $62.50 or more pre-code). I added 5 cannisters of ground drip coffee (ordinarily $14.99 each) to my cart (which is about $75 before coupon). You don’t need to choose the subscription option for 20% off – you can choose to deliver 1 time.
- Apply coupon SUMMER to take 20% off.
- Your cart should now show $59.96 for 5 cannisters. Check out. Get 8% cash back from TopCashBack ($4.80 back) for a net cost of about $55.16.
- Trigger the Amex Offer for $10 back and a new net cost of $45.16 and free shipping.
- Stack further by checking out with an Amex Platinum (consumer) card that has not yet used this month’s PayPal credit for $30 back and a net cost of $15.16. If you happen to be new to PayPal, get a referral from a friend and you’ll get another $10 for a net cost of $5.16.
Before you judge that last step and say that everyone has a PayPal account, I’ll note that my mother-in-law is a newly-minted Amex Platinum cardholder who had no PayPal account before today. I referred her and we each get $10 for that, meaning that this illy coffee deal will net a ~$5 profit overall. Boom!
If you share my affliction with coffee addiction, Happy Prime Day to you, my friend.
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Beware this stacking method doesn’t actually work. I tried to do this, and Amex denied the save $10 when you spend $50 Amex offer because they said the purchase was made with a third party merchant (PayPal). So you won’t get the additional $10 off through the Amex offer.
That’s possible, but I only posted this 5 days ago and they didn’t charge my card until my order shipped 3 days ago. I wouldn’t expect an Amex offer to post yet, nor would I have faith in the average Amex customer service representative to know whether or not it will post. I’d give it a few more days before you panic.
Any luck with the Amex offer posting the $10 savings? My illy.com payment posted 6 days ago, and I still haven’t received the Amex credit. I didn’t receive the typical email that says ‘Congratulations! You’ve used an Amex offer for illy.com’ after I made the purchase. The illy.com offer T&C state “In addition, in most cases, you may not receive the statement credit if your transaction is made with an electronic wallet or through a third party…” and the Amex customer service representative told me that the purchase was made through a third party merchant. Unless others have successfully receive this credit, I will likely resign to the fact that the $10 credit is not going to post.
[…] Very stackable deal for Illy coffee. I’m in favor of anything that puts more good coffee in the hands of travelers. Like an Amex offer, sitewide sale, and rich shopping portal earnings. This is a version of the coffee United Airlines serves. […]
also, you should go for whole bean coffee, grind at home. Really simple. A good and cheap blade (yeah, conical burr is the best, but this one is good) is the Kitchen Aid grinder. Takes 20 seconds to grind.
I have a small Krups grinder, and I did buy at least one cannister of whole bean, but I’m often making coffee at 3:30 or 4am and don’t need to wake the kids with the grinder. Yeah, I could do it the night before or something — but then I could just buy it ground and save the step.
In general preground loses its freshness a lot faster. You would be better off getting whole ground and grinding what you need the night before.
fantastic advice!!!
Followed your step-by-step, thx Nick! FYI discount code Summer on first step of order (so don’t have to back arrow)
Wait…if he called you in the middle of the night, were you awake already drinking coffee?